Welcome! Greenfield Community College is the only institution of public higher education in Franklin County, Massachusetts, with an annual enrollment of over 2,500 credit students and a rich tradition of access, excellence and affordability.

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With over 60 programs and certificates and extensive student support services (like transfer counseling, disability accommodations and tutoring) GCC is the place for quality, affordable higher education in the Pioneer Valley.

News & announcements from the ‘Blog’ category

Will competency based education do away with the traditional credit hour? Recently the federal government approved a liberal arts associate degree fully competency based program at Southern New Hampshire University and other locations. Others explore how such a change may influence the traditions of 15 week semesters and three credit courses. Colleges are beginning to…

More recent reports suggest that online courses may widen the achievement gap. Online students are less likely to achieve a degree. Black students, male students, younger students, and students with lower grade-point averages are most susceptible to attrition in online courses. Skill sets of students enrolling in online courses. Columbia University’s Community College Research Center researchers examined 500,000 courses…

As MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses] expand and are absorbed/developed at colleges and universities, inevitably technology will be challenged. Early in February, a MOOC on how faculty can set up an online course crashed. Courseera who had over 40,000 faculty enrolled, had to suspend the course after only 5 days. The explanation of a ‘design’ flaw in using Google Documents…

The value of Liberal Arts and Workforce skills continues to be in the news. Revisit previous post. One recent article focused on false promises and splits that are emerging between those who can go to college for Liberal Arts and those who are expected to get “training’. More recently, helping students learn ‘soft skills to ‘know’…

More has been in the news lately about using podcasts, twitter, and skype in the classroom. A recent article focuses on the use of twitter. Another project is using social media to connect social justice activists. Other student groups working with local labor unions use social media and old fashioned, hit the streets organizing efforts to…

More emphasis about online pedagogy has been discussed more. A relatively new online journal, Hybrid Pedagogy, focuses on teaching online, moving beyond the technical aspects of delivering online course content. Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is an open online course that explores the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework…

Massive Online Open Courses [MOOCs] have received more attention. An article described the Big Three companies and others describe the training potential. A short video describes MOOCs and their potential. MOOC’s are creating partnerships with colleges to offer college credit for the online courses. More community colleges are entering agreements to use MOOCs, including Massachusetts…

Recently as the emphasis to workforce development and ‘job’ skills training has escalated, more research and emphasis on the value of liberal arts is emerging as an important ‘work’ skill. Habits of mind explores why students need to have these underlying traits: “curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage, thoroughness, and humility.” Another previous article explored that the Liberal Arts…

The Learning Assistance Association of New England [LAANE ]Conference at GCC on Friday October 26. All Day. LAANE supports educators who are working with under-prepared, at-risk, and nontraditional students in their pursuit of a post-secondary education. The conference theme is “Student Success: There’s an App for That” with keynote and break out sessions. Contact Norman Beebe or…